Andrew McCutchen understands the frustrations of Pittsburgh Pirates fans who chant for chairman Bob Nutting to sell the team, even if the franchise icon admitted that he hates hearing them.
Of course, Cutch can do no wrong in the eyes of many Pirates fans, given how the five-time All-Star and 2013 National League MVP was the catalyst of their most recent teams to reach the postseason and continues to climb among the club’s all-time leaders in most major offensive categories.
The only player on these Pirates who was a member of their last team with a winning record, however, was surprised to hear the hostility from fans upon returning to the team that drafted him.
“You don’t want to hear that, whether you’re at home or away, but I get it,” said Pirates second baseman Adam Frazier, who played 113 games for the 2018 team that went 82-79 and was an All-Star in 2021. “We’re trying to play good baseball and trying to win the game, so you block it out and play the game. We’re not winning, but, at the same time, you want home-field advantage when you’re at home.”
It didn’t help that the Pirates started the season by losing three one-run games by walk-off to the Miami Marlins — who were coming off a 100-loss season — and were 2-5 when they returned to PNC Park. Or that after winning three of four against the Washington Nationals in the second homestand, they were swept by the Cleveland Guardians.
But Pirates players can’t deny that fans doing the wave while Kyle Nicolas was pitching and “sell the team” chants while Caleb Ferguson was on the mound against Cleveland were a distraction, with the boos and chants magnifying every mistake.
“It’s not what you want to hear out of your home fans to start the season,” Frazier said, “but they have high expectations and so do we.”
The 2018 Pirates won their first four games, 12 of their first 20 and were in first place in the NL Central until April 20. By comparison, the 2025 Pirates lost five of their first six, 15 of their first 23 and have spent most of this month in last place in division standings. It hasn’t helped that the Pirates were 4-5 in one-run games through their first 26 games.
McCutchen and Frazier realize that the venom directed at Nutting, general manager Ben Cherington and field manager Derek Shelton has more to do with six consecutive losing seasons and an offseason in which the front office did little to add offensive power to a team built around 2024 NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes.
Frazier hopes the Pirates can make PNC Park fan-friendly again, though he knows that the only way to change the chants is to start winning.
“Cheer for us. It’s your home ballpark. It’s supposed to be a home-field advantage kind of thing,” Frazier said. “That’s some outside stuff. We can’t really let it bother us. Hopefully, by the end of the season, they’re cheering for us, and those boos have disappeared.”
Rejuvenating Reynolds
Moving Oneil Cruz to the leadoff spot not only got him going but also rejuvenated Bryan Reynolds, even if the two-time All-Star outfielder was skeptical early on about its impact.
“I don’t think it’s really changed anything. I think they’re going to throw me how they’re going to throw me,” Reynolds told TribLive on April 19. “I feel like I got pitched the same with him behind me versus in front of me. It’s not noticeable, but I also haven’t been seeing it great, either way.”
Reynolds typically doesn’t heat up until June, when he has a .340/.409/.572 career slash line. He was batting .197 with 29 strikeouts in 76 at-bats through April 17 before a three-hit game against the Guardians that included a solo homer.
“I seem to always start a little slow — minus one or two years — but I always come out of it,” Reynolds said. “I know I can hit. It’s just not getting too (ticked) and getting through it.”
When Reynolds scuffles, he starts tinkering. Where he uses a high leg lift and is aggressive while batting right-handed, he added a toe-tap as a timing mechanism while hitting lefty.
“I’ve always flip-flopped a lot of things here and there, just because I don’t want to drown in it,” Reynolds said. “It’s always been pretty different, right and left. Right-handed is more of a feel, more of an athletic thing. Lefty has been more simple: step, foot down early. There’s a significant difference between the two.”
Former Pirates catcher Michael McKenry, now a SportsNet Pittsburgh studio analyst, told TribLive that Reynolds using the toe tap is “awesome” because he looks more “rhythmic and loose” and appears to have found consistency batting between Cruz and McCutchen.
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McKenry believes that it’s not an accident that Reynolds’ revival coincided with the lineup shuffle but also his return to playing right field. After serving as designated hitter because of a right shoulder injury that prevented him from throwing, Reynolds started in right April 17.
“But No. 1 is him being back out in the outfield,” McKenry said, “being engaged and moving more.”
Where Cruz slashed .314/.368/.714 with two doubles, four homers and four RBIs in his first eight games batting leadoff, Reynolds found his groove with a trio of three-hit games in a four-day span and batted .444 with a 1.004 OPS over a six-game stretch.
“It’s nice that I’ve got opportunities when he’s on base,” Reynolds said, noting how dangerous Cruz is on the basepaths. “He can turn a single into a double, then a single gets a run in. I’ve still got to try to get a good pitch to hit, but it makes it easier to try and score a run.”
Shuffling the deck
Shelton gets defensive when asked about his batting orders, focusing more on matchups against the starting pitcher. That has served as a source of frustration for Trib reader Robert Ludwig, who has long lamented how Shelton didn’t use the same batting order in successive games until the Pirates visited the Los Angeles Angels.
When the Pirates snapped a three-game skid with a season-high 18 hits in a 9-3 win on Tuesday, Shelton used the same lineup the following day: Cruz, Reynolds, McCutchen, Enmanuel Valdez, Joey Bart, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Adam Frazier, Tommy Pham and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. The result? A 3-0 win.
Don’t expect Shelton to stop shuffling the lineup, but perhaps the Pirates will find some consistency at the top with Cruz, Reynolds and McCutchen in the first three spots and Frazier, Pham and Kiner-Falefa at the bottom of the order.